The story is the same across the entire country. .Every province in Canada has greatly increased health spending in the last five years yet every province in Canada is facing overwhelmed and short-staffed health care systems. .It doesn't matter how much is spent or what party is in power. .People are dying while waiting for specialized treatment or diagnostics. Family doctors are nearly impossible to find. Ambulances and emergency services can't keep up with demand and hospital emergency rooms are constantly overwhelmed. .Something has to give. .If money isn't the answer, then the problem is with the system. .Any politician questioning Canada's sacred health care system is to committing a form of blasphemy. Unions, pundits and academics will pour from the woodworks and condemn the offender for daring to question the perfection of the Canadian system. Eager legacy media outlets will jump into the mix and feed the fires with dire images of people suffering for lack of care in the United States and will interview somebody from south of the border who will offer a sob story on how they lost their retirement and home due to medical bills for an emergency hemorrhoid surgery. The politician who set things off will then duck his or her head and not bring up the subject again. .It has to stop and Canadians have to stop falling for the fearmongering from the defenders of the status quo. .Liberal and NDP politicians have accused conservatives of wanting to dismantle the universal health care system since it was created. Not once has a conservative government done anything to threaten the universality of the system though many have had majority mandates where they could have done so. It's hollow fearmongering from the left. .So why do they do it? .Because it works every damn time. .Canadians have been trained for decades to believe we have the best healthcare system on the planet and that the only alternative system is the American one. That is utter bunk. .Canada's system is among the worst of universal health systems when it comes to bang for the buck and there are dozens of other systems in the world besides the American one. .We need to have frank discussions on the system and must look at the models that are outperforming ours. There are many models in Europe and Asia that are providing universal care while spending less than we do and without having to ration provision nearly as much as we do..So what's the catch? .They allow more private provision for care. .Remember, again, universal coverage, but with private provision. Nobody gets turned away and everybody is covered. .Monopoly systems always screw the consumer and in Canada we are living under a healthcare provision monopoly. Lack of competition has stunted innovation, allowed a massive bloated bureaucracy to grow, and has empowered unions to the point where internal reforms are nearly impossible to achieve. The care is too centralized within hospitals that are bursting at the seams but to try and take services out of the hospital setting is to raise the ire of the unions. .In Alberta, the NDP are raising the spectre of privatized healthcare in the election. They are running commercials showing a person reaching into their wallet for a credit care while checking in at a clinic. .This tactic is standard from the left and is unsurprising. What's infuriating though is it works. .Mistrust is being fostered in Premier Smith and many people are saying things like "I don't like the NDP, but I can't let the UCP dismantle the healthcare system.".How long will we allow the healthcare system to deteriorate before realizing it needs reform? .How long will we let ourselves be fooled by the fearmongering of unions that care nothing for patient outcomes and only about maintaining the status quo? .Politicians need to find the courage to take on the system and voters need to find the courage to allow them to do it. .Until that happens, the system will continue its slide to the bottom no matter how many tax dollars are pumped into it.
The story is the same across the entire country. .Every province in Canada has greatly increased health spending in the last five years yet every province in Canada is facing overwhelmed and short-staffed health care systems. .It doesn't matter how much is spent or what party is in power. .People are dying while waiting for specialized treatment or diagnostics. Family doctors are nearly impossible to find. Ambulances and emergency services can't keep up with demand and hospital emergency rooms are constantly overwhelmed. .Something has to give. .If money isn't the answer, then the problem is with the system. .Any politician questioning Canada's sacred health care system is to committing a form of blasphemy. Unions, pundits and academics will pour from the woodworks and condemn the offender for daring to question the perfection of the Canadian system. Eager legacy media outlets will jump into the mix and feed the fires with dire images of people suffering for lack of care in the United States and will interview somebody from south of the border who will offer a sob story on how they lost their retirement and home due to medical bills for an emergency hemorrhoid surgery. The politician who set things off will then duck his or her head and not bring up the subject again. .It has to stop and Canadians have to stop falling for the fearmongering from the defenders of the status quo. .Liberal and NDP politicians have accused conservatives of wanting to dismantle the universal health care system since it was created. Not once has a conservative government done anything to threaten the universality of the system though many have had majority mandates where they could have done so. It's hollow fearmongering from the left. .So why do they do it? .Because it works every damn time. .Canadians have been trained for decades to believe we have the best healthcare system on the planet and that the only alternative system is the American one. That is utter bunk. .Canada's system is among the worst of universal health systems when it comes to bang for the buck and there are dozens of other systems in the world besides the American one. .We need to have frank discussions on the system and must look at the models that are outperforming ours. There are many models in Europe and Asia that are providing universal care while spending less than we do and without having to ration provision nearly as much as we do..So what's the catch? .They allow more private provision for care. .Remember, again, universal coverage, but with private provision. Nobody gets turned away and everybody is covered. .Monopoly systems always screw the consumer and in Canada we are living under a healthcare provision monopoly. Lack of competition has stunted innovation, allowed a massive bloated bureaucracy to grow, and has empowered unions to the point where internal reforms are nearly impossible to achieve. The care is too centralized within hospitals that are bursting at the seams but to try and take services out of the hospital setting is to raise the ire of the unions. .In Alberta, the NDP are raising the spectre of privatized healthcare in the election. They are running commercials showing a person reaching into their wallet for a credit care while checking in at a clinic. .This tactic is standard from the left and is unsurprising. What's infuriating though is it works. .Mistrust is being fostered in Premier Smith and many people are saying things like "I don't like the NDP, but I can't let the UCP dismantle the healthcare system.".How long will we allow the healthcare system to deteriorate before realizing it needs reform? .How long will we let ourselves be fooled by the fearmongering of unions that care nothing for patient outcomes and only about maintaining the status quo? .Politicians need to find the courage to take on the system and voters need to find the courage to allow them to do it. .Until that happens, the system will continue its slide to the bottom no matter how many tax dollars are pumped into it.
